


The Barton Family Trust

by cynatnite



Series: The Barton Initiative [15]
Category: Bourne (Movies), Starsky & Hutch
Genre: Captain America knew Starsky's father, Happy Ending, Skye is a wicked poker player, Terrance Ward is Terry Nash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 10:04:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20673584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cynatnite/pseuds/cynatnite
Summary: The brothers and Starsky & Hutch finally get the truth from the last person they expected, but will justice ever happen?





	The Barton Family Trust

Two penthouses shared the top floor of the exclusive building in upscale Manhattan. Terrance Ward made his way down the darkened hallway with keys in hand. He’d just put the key in the lock when he saw the two figures approaching.

He took a step back and froze when he saw the faces.

“I’ll be damned,” Terrance breathed. “It’s been what… over forty years?”

“Give or take,” Hutch said.

“Quite a step up from the guy that didn’t have a dime to his name,” Starsky observed. 

Terrance turned back to the door and unlocked it. Starsky and Hutch followed him into the darkened living room. When Terrance turned on the small lamp near the bar, he saw the six figures in the living area with all but two sitting. The chairs and sofa were occupied.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you all put it together,” Terrance said looking from one brother to the other. Then he turned towards Starsky and Hutch. “But how they got you guys, you’ll have to tell me that story.”

Picking up a decanter at the bar, Terrance shook his head. “I don’t know which of you is Cross, but I got to thank you for taking care of Byer. That asshole burned all the programs with Hirsch out of the picture. He was going to rebuild and keep it off the book.”

He turned his head at seeing one of the brothers shift in his seat.

Terrance poured a drink and held up the bottle. “Anyone?” No one moved. He laughed a little. “You think I’m the bad guy, the big evil pharma exec. We did damn fine work, made people smarter and stronger. The six of you are the best at what you do because of a lot of work and millions of dollars in research.”

“You really want to start at the end of the story, Terry?” Starsky asked.

“It’s the part that matters the most, but I get it. You want to know the A to Z of it.” Terrance took a drink. “Back when I thought Durniak killed my wife I went to buy a rifle. Ran into this guy who called me a name I’d never heard before. It was a few years later that I looked into it. Buddy Griggs, Army sharpshooter in Vietnam. No family to speak of. It explained how I made the shot that killed Durniak.”

Everyone watched Terrance set his glass down and remove his overcoat. He tossed it aside on one of the barstools.

“I was still all over the fucking place still feeling like I had a wife despite the garbage they crammed into my brain. Remember when we split up at the castle?”

“Where did you get off to for those five minutes, Terry?” Hutch asked. “It wasn’t just to make your way inside like you said.”

“If you’d bothered checking you would have found fresh tire tracks leaving that place.” Terrance picked up his glass and drank more liquor. “Found an office just off the foyer in the front. I’m thinking it’s got to have some juicy information. Instead, it was some guy about my age, maybe a few years older.”

“Albert Hirsch,” says a voice sitting in the dark.

Terrance has no idea which brother had spoken up. He looks to Starsky and Hutch.

“He’s telling me that they screwed the pooch from the outset. Taking people off the street and doing this to them was asking for trouble. He says he told them the operation was doomed to be a failure. I’ve got a gun aimed right at his head and he’s talking to me like I’m a coworker.” Terrance finishes off the drink and goes back to the bar.

“Volunteers are the only way to go and not just with psychotropic drugs and fancy brainwashing. He’s telling me the science has to go deeper and that volunteers with Captain America complexes are the only way to success. Of course, I’m speechless. Hirsch gives me a card and tells me that if I want to help him do it right, then make sure that helicopter doesn’t take off and to contact him in six months.”

“You shot that bird down on his say-so?” Starsky shook his head. “You were loaded for bear.”

“Hell, yeah, I was,” Terrance said. “Hirsch wanted George Stegner dead because everything went belly-up and he would have talked to save his own hide. His role in screwing with my head was an added incentive.”

“You let Hirsch escape and then walked into the sunset a week later,” Hutch remembered.

“While I worked some odd jobs here and there, I read everything I could about behavior modification and physical enhancements. That lead to the supersoldier Captain America. The reading was way above my paygrade. Next thing I know, I’m talking to a guy at Stanford who can’t shut-up about this DNA he’s got his hands on. His idea is to make better humans who can’t get sick, who are smarter and faster. A biologically superior bionic man.”

Terrance smiles when he thinks about it.

“Hillcott needs more time to experiment and study, but I’m thinking who needs to be brainwashed when there are soldiers who’d give their right arm to be better in the field, spies who could not just survive, but excel at covert operations in every way. I called Hirsch and told him all about it. He’s all for it and puts me on the payroll to stick with Hillcott.”

Lifting the decanter, Terrance fills his glass a second time.

“When I found out it was your DNA, Starsky, I wasn’t all that surprised. I told Hillcott all about you and Hirsch sent over your file. Your genes come along once in a lifetime, he said. The CIA was more than happy to set up a facility to see if what you had could be replicated.”

“A fertility clinic.”

Terrance swung around. He was surprised to see the brothers hadn’t moved, but no way could he tell who had spoken.

“Sure,” he answered. “We needed a surrogate and not just any woman. Hillcott spent months going through test results. They’d let the word out that a chosen volunteer would do financially well and be able to help infertile parents. When he finally found the one, no genetic defects, practically no hereditary issues and acceptable traits, he was like a kid at Christmas.”

As if Terrance wanted them to understand he stepped closer.

“She was the perfect vessel, don’t you see? She was healthy, intelligent and as genetically desirable as he could hope for. Her DNA combined with Starsky’s would almost guarantee soldiers and spies. The plan was to place them with families that had a strong sense of patriotism.”

Clint felt sick to his stomach and he turned to face the window. He stared across the nighttime cityscape as Terrance continued.

“Hirsch and Hillcott wanted to take it a step further. After the disaster at Fort Detrick, I introduced Hirsch and Hillcott at some neuro conference. The three of us sat in a bar and put together a plan for Treadstone.”

Terrance finished off the drink and looked at Starsky and Hutch.

“That’s how Sterisyn-Morlanta got its start. With Hillcott and other government scientists, we’d build the program kits. Hirsch and Byer got the volunteers.” Terrance slid on a barstool and continued. “Who knew that Kitson would join the Army? Nobody. Once he got through boot camp and stationed with an infantry unit, Byer plucked him out of obscurity and trained him. It was Byer’s idea to augment him and make the perfect operative. When we had to burn the programs only to find one Outcome agent had survived. He set it up so that Aaron Cross would come to him. If not for that, none of you would be here now.”

“You think so?”

Everyone looked at Clint. His body coiled tight and his fists clenched.

Clint swung around and stalked towards Terrance until he was face-to-face with the man.

“It was our mother from the beginning. You damn near broke her with this playing god shit, but she wasn’t about to go without someone knowing what you people did. It was her holding me in her arms, crying and calling me by name and five others.”

“Clint?” Cory asked.

“I was a child who hadn’t a clue. I didn’t understand. None of it made sense. The names always changed and now I know why. She loved all of us.” Clint turned away unable to look at him. “She was never the same. Uncle Carmine said so when he told me I had five brothers.” He took a deep breath and let it out, feeling calmer. “We were destined to find each other. While you die alone, we’ll still be a family.”

No one spoke as Clint walked out the door. Each brother filed out one by one without speaking.

Starsky turned towards Terrance.

“I gotta say, Terry. Some work you people did. One brother can track anything for a fifty mile radius, then there’s a covert operative who could kill someone with a paperclip, another one who could build a bomb the size of a plum in his sleep, oh, and one that’s an intelligent analyst who could break a government with one phone call, another one who’s operational planning includes the craziest shit you can ever come up with and lets not forget the last one…an Avenger on a team consisting of a mean green machine just for starters,” Starsky smiled. “If I were you, I wouldn’t sleep too good.”

He saw Hutch waiting outside the door for him and got a kiss on the cheek after closing it behind him.

Out on the dark street, Starsky, Hutch and the brothers all stood quietly until Brian spoke.

“There’s got to be some way of taking that asshole down.”

“Terry Nash doesn’t exist,” Hutch said. “Anything he did then wouldn’t matter now. As Terrance Ward, maybe some campaign violations or unethical behavior at the most.”

“We dig deeper,” Will suggested. “There has to be something. The murdering of those Outcome agents.”

“You’ll never find anything, Will,” Aaron said. “And you know it.”

“What’s the one thing Terry Nash aka Terrance Ward couldn’t stand to lose?” Starsky asked.

“Maybe it’s time to put this fame to some good use,” Clint said. “I’m a B-level Avenger, but with Tony’s publicity firm, I can make enough noise to get Sterisyn-Morlanta under a very uncomfortable spotlight.”

“What do you mean “I”?” James stepped forward. “We’re in this together, Clint. The press would go apeshit if they saw six of us on a stage together.”

“The questions wouldn’t stop until they got the full story,” Cory told them. “Thing is, not all of us has jobs that’s media friendly.”

“There’s a way around that,” Will said. Cory was referring to him and he knew exactly what to do.

~*~

The press conference was scheduled soon after. With Tony’s help and his excitable publicity firm, reporters filled the auditorium to near capacity.

Clint dressed as Hawkeye, looking like the superhero that had been photographed and action figures had been built after.

It was when his five brothers stepped out, all wearing white button-down shirts with long sleeves that got the most attention. The name that would be noted was Clint’s. Everyone else would remain as anonymous at least for the time being. Their names would eventually come out with the exception of Will Brandt’s.

Once all six were lined up, side by side, Clint stepped up to the mic.

The room exploded with reporters shouting questions. Clint smiled.

~*~

Clint sat on the bed with Phil’s laptop. He scrolled through the news reports detailing the saga of his mother, his brothers and how they all arrived to this point. It was still overwhelming when he thought about it.

The decision had been made from the beginning to keep Starsky & Hutch safely anonymous. They were notorious in their own right and adding the story of the Barton Brothers would be a detriment to the quiet life they now enjoyed. Only a close-knit few would know the full truth.

He looked up to see Phil leaning against the door frame.

“You and your brothers will be trending for a while. Two senators have sent word they’ll be looking for you to testify in front of their committees. Sterisyn-Morlanta took a huge hit at the stock market.”

“Good.” Clint nodded. “The hearing has to be public, Phil. No more keeping this in the dark.”

“It won’t be for at least a month,” Phil said. “The party is well underway. You’re the only one missing.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s going to be strange when everyone leaves in the next few days. I got used to the noise.”

Phil walked over and sat next to Clint.

“Will said everyone will be in DC for Thanksgiving.”

“I already got it marked on the calendar.” Clint gently nudged Phil’s shoulder.

“The calendar will be a full one with birthdays, anniversaries, vacations and holidays. I don’t think it’ll be all that quiet.”

“I wish Momma and Uncle Carmine were here, to see us all together.”

“Maybe they are,” Phil offered. “I’m so happy for you, Clint. You have an incredible family.”

“Yeah, I know.” Clint took hold of Phil’s hand. “Thank you, Phil, for seeing me through it.”

They exchanged a loving kiss. Clint stood and pulled Phil to his feet.

“Come on. I don’t want to miss the party.”

~*~

The party was in full swing when Clint and Phil arrived. Jazz played in the background, food filled a table with lights overhead adding to the playful ambiance.

Bruce was playing bartender with Benji and Tony close by. Judging by their animated gestures, he had no doubt they were debating the various technologies. Bruce was shaking his head and laughing at them.

Aaron and Marta were off in their own world dancing to the music. The love for one another seemed to fill the room.

Sitting in chairs with a table between them, Sam, James and Skye were playing cards together. It made Clint chuckle. According to Phil, Skye was an expert card player.

He saw Cory and Natasha sharing a private conversation. Seeing her eyes light up and the bright smile brought a warm feeling to his heart. He’d never known Natasha to open up to many people and there had always been a serious wariness on her face. There was no denying the affect Cory was having on her and Clint liked what he saw.

Brian was on the sofa with his feet propped up and comfortably leaning against Jim who was in a discussion with Hutch. Clint hoped Brian would be able to settle his past easier knowing that he had a family standing at his side along with Jim Street.

Then he saw Starsky. Steve was waving his hand about and relaying a story from the old days back in Brooklyn. It was no surprise the two men would bond with how much they had in common. Starsky was likely seeing his father in a new light.

It would take time, Clint knew, for him and his brothers to figure out just how Starsky would fit in their lives going forward. Hutch, too, he mentally emphasized.

Before he could think further about it, Phil was pulling him forward.

“Come on. You’re supposed to give a speech.”

Clint stood in the middle of the room with Phil at his side, surrounded by Avengers, his brothers and those closest to them.

He took a champagne glass from Phil and raised it.

“To family.”

**Author's Note:**

> I've got some short story ideas. :)


End file.
